### 58

You return to the highway a mile from Uzam and turn north towards Pensei. The rumble of distant thunder heralds the start of another storm. Intermittent flashes of lightning illuminate the hills to the west, and the peaks of the Szuchow Mountains beyond are soon lost from view amidst of a roiling mass of ominous black rain clouds. You pass by a dozen covered wagons on the rain-swept highway, all travelling in the opposite direction. This traffic of wagons steadily increases until you are forced to abandon the highway and continue northwards by way of the soft grassland that borders the overcrowded road.

By mid-afternoon, the highway is clogged with dour-faced Chai pushing hand carts heaped high with household possessions. This sorry procession is a refugee column from Pensei. The fact that so many of its citizens have abandoned the shelter and comfort of their homes to travel south, in such appalling weather, fills you with a sense of dread. It means that the capital must be facing an imminent enemy attack.

Six Chai cavalry rangers come riding across the grassland that runs parallel with the crowded highway. They are all standing in their stirrups and seem to be searching for something or someone among the column of refugees.

If you possess Assimilance, turn to 322.

If you do not possess this Grand Master Discipline, turn to 168.